Why Can’t Anyone Tell Me What’s Wrong? | Alexandra Sifferlin

About this episode

Alexandra Sifferlin discusses the challenges of receiving accurate medical diagnoses and the implications of diagnostic errors.

Ever have something clearly wrong, and yet no expert can tell you what’s causing it? Or, worse, they DO tell you, but they’re wrong? Nearly everyone will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime. Not a minor mix-up, but a missed, delayed, or wrong diagnosis that shapes how long you suffer, what treatment you receive, and whether anyone believes something is actually wrong with you. For people in midlife, when the body starts sending new signals and the stakes of getting it right feel higher, that statistic carries a particular weight. Alexandra Sifferlin is a science and health journalist and the author of The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis . She spent years inside hospital systems, talking with leading diagnosticians, tracing families who waited decades for answers, and mapping the structural gaps that let real suffering fall through. Her book is dedicated to her sister, who spent years being told her severe hip pain was a pillow-placement problem, until imaging revealed torn cartilage that required surgery. In this conversation, you will explore: Why receiving a diagnosis is more than a medical event, and how a diagnosis gives you…

People in this episode

Host: Jonathan Fields

Guest: Alexandra Sifferlin

Topics covered

• diagnostic errors
• healthcare
• midlife health
• patient experience
• medical diagnosis

Keywords

• diagnosis
• health journalism
• patient care
• medical errors
• midlife health

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis

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